Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Mt Kineo Trail

On Monday I took the Mt Kineo Trail from the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest to the Three Ponds area on the other side of the mountain to sample a few ponds. I headed out early in an attempt to avoid a possible storm, which never quite made it up this way. The area towards the end of the Mt Kineo trail and by the donkey cutoff/three ponds seemed like the perfect habitat for moose, and I was really hoping to see one, but it didn't happen. Moose tracks, as well as scat were abundant nearly everywhere I looked. To the right is a photo of one of the moose tracks. I also observed plenty of red efts along the trail, two garter snakes, raccoon tracks, deer tracks, a couple of black bear tracks, and a huge porcupine sauntering along in front of me on my return hike back up. Because I was in a bit of a hurry I didn't stop for too many photographs, and by the time I had my camera out for the porcupine it was waddling away as fast as it could, and I didn't want to bother it.It was a very solitary hike, I didn't see another person the entire ten or eleven miles.